If Facebook Tracks Your Private Info–How Can You Keep it Safe?

What is the first thing that comes to your mind with Facebook? To be frank, it is more than a social networking site. Bridging the larger divide, the platform presents you an opportunity to connect, make friends, build your business, share updates, upload videos and images and plenty more.

The medium is engaging and most of the time, you have fun. Is that it?

Just consider the number of users. 2 billion active accounts and the numbers are all set to grow. Well, you will find it tough to ignore the power of social media.

If the numbers aren’t staggering, consider the amount of data Facebook has access to? What does it do with so much of information?

The Problem is with Your Data

Facebook collects data in various ways. As per the data revealed by The Sun, nearly 300 petabytes ( one thousand million million bytes) of data has been amassed by the social networking giant.

There are all sorts of data to start with- which also includes your name, date of birth, age, location, marital status, where you work and the usual stuff. In addition to these, it also includes the activities, such as liking someone’s status update, whom you follow and what you share.

The tracker cookies employed by Facebook also make it a point to follow you around, while surfing online. In a way, this presents Facebook an opportunity to provide you with more relevant results.

In short, Facebook indeed makes it a point to track your private data. The company says the exercise is done in a bid to enhance the user experience.

But then, you might have an entirely different stance on this matter. Privacy is a contentious issue and a majority of Facebook users have some reservation about how Facebook goes about, keeping a track of their private data.

What Can You Do?

Your inclination towards data safety is something that you will never compromise. In view of the rising debate on what is good and what not, Facebook does offer you the chance to manage the ad settings. By tweaking the ad settings, at least you will be able to restrict Facebook from tracking you across the internet.

To manage the ad setting of your Facebook account, click on this link:

Looking for the exact data figure Facebook has on You? To find out, you can download a copy your Facebook archive. Here, you will find almost all the information Facebook has about you. In fact, you want to delete the account, by downloading the archive, you will at least have a back-up.

It is never a good idea to find out how much of your data is being tracked. However, for the sake of privacy, this needs to be done. By and large, it helps you to remain in the loop and lets you take the preventive measures.

The Next Step

To shed more light into the matter, Facebook did publish a post in January ‘18, covering the “privacy principles”. This is a bold new move on the part of the social network. In fact, the company until now never made any effort to share these guidelines.

By sharing the guidelines, Facebook wants to make it hear loud and clear. Erin Egan, Chief Security officer at Facebook said that the principles show how Facebook wants users to have more control over their privacy.

Of course, the main objective is to present the users with more powerful alternatives, when it comes to how data is used in the long run. The company is even working to come up with new controls and design, so as to make things clear to the general people.

To streamline the whole process, Facebook is even creating a new privacy center that will incorporate all the core settings in one single place.

The whole re-design is being done with the feedback received from people, policy makers and privacy experts, which is no doubt a good initiative.

Is Facebook Scared !

The new reforms on the privacy front by Facebook is being carried out, keeping in mind the General Data Protection Regulation. It is basically a EU online privacy directive, which is likely to affect millions of users.

Going by the proceedings, it does appear Facebook is a bit scared. The social network giant , led by Mark Zuckerberg is under intense pressure from the peer groups and various agencies to improve privacy.

Of late, there has been a considerable hue and cry, as far as privacy on Facebook is concerned. Apparently, Facebook is trying to come out clean and with the new guidelines, it believes, users will be better equipped to handle their private data.

However, the responsibility of safeguarding the private data is not just of the user alone. Facebook too needs to become more transparent and this is one area, where the social network must provide more clarity.

Protecting Your Privacy – Securing the Facebook Account

The issue isn’t just about protecting your data from Facebook. On the contrary, you must also look at the other factors. Incidents of Facebook hacking are definitely on the rise, and so are phishing attacks.

In the ensuing chaos, you have to adapt to the challenges lying ahead. There is a new and improved and security feature from Facebook, which has been tailor-made to notify the users about any phishing attack.

In the end, what you can do is to stay alert and conscious of the actions that you take. Your social life online matters, but your privacy alone matters more.

For Queries Ask the Expert

To learn more about the security feature and its various aspects, feel free to contact the experts from the Facebook help center team.

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Gonetech Solution is a self-governing or independent customer service provider rendering complete assistance to users when it comes to resolving general or critical problems in free or paid webmail servers (Yahoo and Gmail) as well as for Facebook as well as to avail digital marketing services . The images and logos of different brands used on our website are for a just referential purpose . We completely disclaim any ownership over them and respect the third party brands; who have exclusive rights over these entities.